Having been on both sides of the eBay game, I have mixed emotions. When I buy, I bid snipe. When I sell, I want as many watchers as possible, and I'd like at least 6-10 bids going into the final minute.

If I have zero bids going into the final minute, I know that I'll be lucky to get a little more than my starting bid as bid sniping will make for a quick and decisive ending.

You folks are missing what I'm seeing a lot of on eBay recently. If there is a high value unique item potentially worth a lot of money there is one tactic that rises above all others. Example: say there a 43 bids on an item currently at $459.00 with 1 day remaining for the auction. The shrewd bidder will bid say $5000.00 immediately disclosing the former high bidder's amount of say $1,600.00 then, retract their $5000.00 bid; snipe the auction at $1700.00 w/o fear of driving up the final cost to them. It is not a guarantee, but eBay will let the bidder with the retraction re-bid on that very same item again. Very unethical on both the bidder's behalf and eBay's behalf.